Pages

Thursday, March 20, 2014

NACAC- Race Day

The next morning Sabrina and I slept through breakfast and
woke up at 9:30am. We headed over to the course to jog it as a shakeout as it
was supposed to be fully marked and we wanted to see the proper course. We
opted to jog most of it and walk the uphills. Legs again felt not too bad. It
was warm out but a little cloud cover and constant breeze was okay. We then
went and relaxed, had lunch and then more relaxing.

Pre Race Shakeout with Sabrina Wilkie

Just when I wanted to have
an afternoon nap, it was time to get ready for the race.

We headed over and
found out the junior girls started 10 minutes early, which worried us and we
altered our plan to start warm up an hour early instead of the planned 50
minutes. The junior women set the bar high, finishing 1-2-3 (Jamie, Jillian,
Claire) and taking Team Gold. The junior men were up next and just after their
start, we began our warm up. Junior men (Ben) took silver and also Team Silver.

Junior Women Podium

They then held the junior awards while we finished warming
up. Again it was warm but not too bad plus the junior women who ran 4km said it
wasn’t too bad out there. Once the awards were over, we actually started our
race a few minutes early as well (shortly after 4pm instead of 4:10pm).

The
race was held at the golf course on the property of the hotel. It started out
flat and then went downhill before making a sharp left turn through a rooted
section with tree coverage. From there it went out and did a somewhat short
loop around that specific hole.

When we turned back, we were running on a sloped surface
where the left was higher than the right. This entire section was slightly
uphill before we veered off left again through another rooted and treed section
and a slight downhill. Then the course popped out on another hole and had
another slight up, before a slight down and then a nice steep climb. As Lynn
said “it’s short and sweet” though in actuality it wasn’t THAT short. Short
enough to not kill you, but long and steep enough to hurt.

Up the top of the hill we turn right through a rooted
section and then a sharp left slightly up and then down again across a green.
We had a somewhat flat loop at this section which eventually looped us around
to the right and back towards the start/finish. At the end of the loop was
another slight up and then briefly flat before we hit the longer steep downhill.
Once we hit the bottom of that we veered to the right and climbed up either
toward the finish or up towards the top green to start another loop. This was
where they had water, which mostly was just tossed over my head or down my
back. No mud of course, unlike Vancouver Nationals, but definitely enough hills
to make it more challenging. So now you know about the course, I assume you want to know
how the race played out. Well initially the race went out fast (like any race) down
the first downhill and then settled down for a bit. The first loop was fairly
easy and the pack was pretty close together.

At the start of the 2nd
lap people started to make moves. I could see out front that I believe my
teammate Jessica and Kellyn Johnson from the States had taken the lead. I continued
to plod along and push the pace and didn’t feel too bad.

Down the first hill

First loop

The 3rd and final lap though, I just wasn’t
aggressive enough. I never attempted to pick up the pace and instead just
cruised. Big mistake. It was hot and it was humid and during this lap I think
is when I really started to notice it. As I said, I did take a water bottle on
every lap, taking a sip for my dry mouth then dumping the rest over my head and
down my back. The big downhill crushed me each time though I did my best to let
go as best as I could and let the legs fly. My teammate Sabrina passed me not
far into the 2nd lap. She gapped me a little bit throughout the race
but never too far.

Short Sweet Hill

Down the final hill she gapped me slightly more and then on
the final uphill towards the finish I was catching her again; however, I simply
ran out of time. Not a big deal for team points though, as we get the same
points no matter if I finished in front or if she did. In the end, Rachel was 2nd,
Jessica was 4th, Sabrina was 9th, I was 10th
and Leslie was 12th.

Finish (little bit tight in the shoulders apparently)

After the finish our coaches threw cold towels over us. A
few of the girls were just spent at the finish; however, other than being a bit
hot I felt fine. Instantly when Leslie finished I said “where is Jodi, I
thought Jodi was the next Canadian behind me.” I looked around at my teammates
to make sure I hadn’t missed her and I was right. Word got around that Jodi
fell on the final downhill. Our therapist Paula started to run towards the hill
where she fell, when someone yelled that Jodi was coming up in the golf cart.
This is where things took a scary turn. Jodi didn’t just “fall,” Jodi collapsed
on course with less than 500m to go. I watched as they transferred Jodi from the golf cart to the
medical tent and she was limp. She was unconscious. I ended up giving her my
cold towel and medics through ice all over her. She was thankfully breathing
but after 5 minutes, no one could get her conscious to even take any fluids in.
The decision was made to send her to the hospital, so off she went with 2 of
our staff. It was pretty scary to watch and we all worried about her health
after that but we figured she would be in good hands and likely just needed
some hydration.

Rachel Hannah and myself

Senior Women (minus Jodi)

Senior Women with Coach Lynn

The mens race after was delayed as they announced they
couldn’t start until an ambulance was on scene. You see, for the junior races
it was slightly cloudy and somewhat cooler; however, once we started to race
the sun came out and gave little to no reprieve. It remained hot for the guys
as well. During the mens race we women did our cool down running around the
course cheering. Uh oh, my legs felt fine compared to what I was hearing around
me. Lesson learned, maybe I didn’t quite push hard enough? Easy to say after,
but based on my legs I felt like I could run for hours. In the end our Junior girls took 1-2-3 and the Team Gold.
Our Junior men took silver in the race plus Team Silver. Our Senior women took
bronze in the race and then Team Silver and our Senior men took Team Silver. We
all hung around after taking team photos and pictures of the sunset. We then
took off from the course and hit the beach for a quick swim just as the sun
went down before dinner.

Senior Women Podium

Senior Women

Senior and Junior Women

Cheesy trophy shot!

Senior women with Barry and Saheed

The rest of the trip was spent just hanging out around the
hotel where I spent some time with Team USA and was told I fit the typical
stereotype of being “Canadian” which was basically being super nice. Well then
those senior men and women could be Canadian too as they were super nice, if it
wasn’t for some of their silly accents. ;)We got up the next morning and went for an hour run at 6:30.
I don’t think I was supposed to run, but honestly I couldn’t turn down another
run in the sunshine and warmth, especially knowing that it was freaking snowing
back home. We left the hotel at 9am and headed back to the Tobago airport.
Ryan, Thomas, Jessy and I had a flight at 10:40am to Trinidad whereas the rest
of the team had flights at 11:10. We all met up in Trinidad though for the
flight back to Toronto. Overall the flights were uneventful and I even caught some
sleep on the way home. In Toronto we all said our goodbyes as some groups were
heading back to Vancouver or Calgary and others were heading out around
Ontario. Us island people (Ryan, Thomas and myself) spent the night in Toronto
due to no connecting flights out of Vancouver that night. It sounds like it was
good too because both the Vancouver and Calgary people ran into problems with
delayed and oversold flights so they got home much later than planned. We instead went out to dinner with team manager Kristine and
had a nice sleep before the boys caught their 8am flight back to Victoria and I
caught my 10am flight (where I am currently in the air right now) back to
Vancouver along with Chris who was our physio and stayed the night at friends).
I get into Vancouver in about an hour (around 11:30am) and then wait until my
2:50pm flight to the island. Hopefully I can sneak onto an earlier flight. This trip was amazing. The way everyone got along made it
even more fun and I honestly am going to miss everyone. It is amazing the way
runners can bond in just a few days. Both the race and experience have taught
me lessons, given me experience and have made me extremely hungry for the
future. The dreams are growing and getting bigger. I can’t wait!